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Action Plan: Fired Up
Photo by Vance Jacobs
“We’re not a brand; we’re a community,” says Traeger Grills President and CEO Jeremy Andrus (MBA 2002). At his Salt Lake City–based barbecue equipment company, and throughout his career, Andrus has made developing company culture an entrepreneurial priority. “Successful companies tap into a fundamental purpose that’s meaningful both to customers and employees,” he says. “You strive to be the best version of your customers.”
That goal was relatively easy to attain in his previous role as CEO of the trendsetting headphone startup, Skullcandy. With a customer base of surfers, snowboarders, and indie-music enthusiasts whose lifestyles were in sync with the company’s small, young workforce, he notes, “We didn’t have to wonder what our consumers would like; we shared their passions.”
When he accepted the job at the then-Oregon-based Traeger in 2014, Andrus was drawn by the potential to scale growth at a 26-year-old regional business. Its self-described “Traegerite” customers were intensely loyal to the company’s signature wood pellet–fired grills and smokers. But he didn’t anticipate the challenge of managing a disgruntled, 90-person workforce that had absolutely no interest in his plans for revitalizing operations, strategy, technology, and marketing—a reality that became evident almost immediately.
“Culture is so important to me, I don’t know how I missed it,” Andrus concedes. A 2019 Harvard Business Review article details his early history with the company, including the morning one of Traeger’s big rigs was set on fire in the parking lot, apparently in protest of his decision to outsource shipping to UPS. “The culture was so toxic, I knew it would ruin me and everyone I brought into it,” he says.
Andrus made a radical decision. With a financial partner, he acquired the company in 2015, moved it to his home state of Utah, and began assembling a team that embraced what he saw as Traeger’s greatest appeal: “Our products give people the confidence to prepare and share meals with family and friends. Food and caring are our core community values.”
Customer feedback pegged Traeger as a lifestyle company: “When people say your grills changed their lives, show you their Traeger tattoos, and name their kids after your company, you’d better listen,” says Andrus, who has created a corporate culture around his “best version of our customers” vision. In addition to personally screening new hires—more than 850 full-time employees, in 37 states and 10 countries—he hired architects to design a headquarters with a woodsy, Pacific Northwest vibe, incorporating comfortable spaces to gather, cook, and eat the company-wide Monday-morning breakfasts and weekday lunches he regularly helps to prepare.
Between 2014 and 2021, Andrus’s handpicked workforce boosted sales from $100 million to nearly $800 million. In July 2021, he oversaw a successful IPO, in the midst of a cultural moment that favored COVID-conscious outdoor living and what he calls the “solace of sharing food.” Traeger’s 1.7 million social media followers, a mainstay of brand loyalty in uncertain times, continue to reinforce the company-customer bond, participating in live, online cooking classes that average 144,000 weekly views, swapping recipes, and sharing countless selfies of “Traegering” with friends and family in backyards all over the world. “We’re growing a global company, neighbor by neighbor,” says Andrus.
How to: Build a big brand while staying close to your customers
Look beyond the obvious metrics. “Competitors focused on getting more BTUs out of burners. Our disruption was to recognize the power of food and entertaining as a cultural trend.”
Listen and learn. “The pandemic paused our live outreach events and created uncertainty about how we’d stay connected and relevant to consumers. Then a customer posted a family meal photo on social media with the simple phrase, ‘Stay calm and Traeger on.’ #TraegerOn immediately took off, and we grew in tandem with our online community.”
Prioritize product experience. Traeger’s convection-based smart grills use an app and sensors to monitor the right combination of heat and smoke; users can remotely check the internal temperature of a steak on the grill. But customers don’t really care about firmware. “That’s all in the background,” notes Andrus. “What sits in the foreground is a consumer saying, ‘I love cooking on this. The food really tastes better.’ That’s our goal.”
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